And Alexander I came to power in a tense and extremely difficult international situation for Russia. Napoleonic France sought dominance in Europe and potentially threatened Russia. Meanwhile, Russia was conducting friendly negotiations with France and was at war with England, France's main enemy. This position, which Alexander inherited from Paul, did not suit the Russian nobles at all.
Firstly, Russia maintained long-standing and mutually beneficial economic ties with England. By 1801, England absorbed 37% of all Russian exports (63% of all merchants trading with Russia were British). France, incomparably less rich than England, never delivered and could not deliver such benefits to Russia. Secondly, England was a respectable, legitimate monarchy, while France was a rebel country, thoroughly imbued with a revolutionary spirit, a country headed by an upstart, a rootless warrior. /15/ Finally, thirdly, England was in good relations with other legitimate, i.e., feudal, monarchies of Europe: Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain. France, precisely as a rebel country, opposed the united front of all other powers.
Thus, the priority foreign policy task of the government of Alexander I was to restore friendship with England. But while tsarism did not intend to fight with France, the new government needed time to organize urgent internal affairs. In 1801-1803 it “flirtated” with England and France, taking advantage of their contradictions and interest in Russian assistance. “We need to take such a position,” Count V.P. formulated the opinion of the Secret Committee on July 10, 1801. Kochubey - to become desirable to everyone, without accepting any obligations towards anyone.”
Literally from the very first day of the new reign, this “flirting” policy began to be implemented and remained a priority for three years. First of all, relations with England were normalized. Already on the night of March 12, 1801, a few minutes after Paul was strangled, when the body of the murdered emperor had not yet cooled down, the new king commanded; return the Cossack regiments of Ataman M.I. Platov, sent by order of Paul on a campaign against India - the treasury of England, and soon, on June 5 (17), Russia concluded an agreement on mutual friendship with England. At the same time, the tsarist government continued negotiations with France and on September 26 (October 8), 1801, concluded them with the signing of a peace agreement. After France and England signed a peace treaty in March 1802, international tensions eased. For the first time in many years, peace was established in Europe. All this allowed tsarism not only to engage in internal reforms, but also to resolve in the fall of 1801 the border issue that had been protracted since 1783 about the annexation of Georgia to Russia.
But the peace in Europe was short-lived. Napoleon used it to prepare for war with England. Seeing this, England itself declared war on France in May 1803 and began to equip at its own expense the next, 3rd coalition of European powers against France (the previous two were defeated by Napoleon in 1797 and 1800). Russia became the main force of the 3rd coalition.
The immediate impetus for Russia's action against France was the events that took place in the spring of 1804. In March, on the orders of Napoleon, a French detachment invaded the territory of the German principality of Baden (4 km from the French border), captured there and took from there to France one of the members of the Bourbon royal family Duke of Enghien. In France, the Duke was tried and executed as the organizer of conspiracies against Napoleon. /16/
This event caused a storm of indignation in England and the courts of Europe. Official mourning was declared at the Russian court. Alexander I expressed an angry protest to Napoleon against the reprisal of the Duke. Napoleon sent Alexander his famous, very poisonous answer in the form of a question: if Alexander knew that his father’s killers were 4 km from the Russian border, would he not have ordered their capture? It was impossible to insult the Tsar more strongly by openly calling him a parricide in front of the whole of Europe. After all, all of Europe knew that Paul was killed by Platon Zubov, Leonty Bennigsen, Peter Palen and that Alexander did not dare to lay a finger on them after his accession, although they did not live “4 km from the Russian border,” but in the capital of Russia and easily visited royal palace.
Having familiarized himself with Napoleon's response, Alexander I immediately broke off relations with France and began to quickly put together a 3rd coalition. If the initiator of the coalition was the English Prime Minister W. Pitt, then Alexander became its soul and organizer. It was he who, for a whole year, convened and rallied the coalitionists, keeping England, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Neapolitan and Sardinian kingdoms in the orbit of his efforts. In the spring of 1805, a series of bloody wars began in Europe, which lasted for 10 years.
Coalition wars 1805-1807 were fought over territorial claims and mainly because of dominance in Europe, which was claimed by each of the five great powers of that time: France, England, Russia, Austria, Prussia. In addition, the coalitionists aimed to restore in Europe, right up to France itself, the feudal regimes overthrown by the French Revolution and Napoleon. These goals are attested in the official documents of the 3rd and 4th coalitions (as, indeed, both previous and all subsequent ones): in the Russian-English, Russian-Austrian and Russian-Prussian (Potsdam and Bartenstein) declarations of 1804-1807. , as well as in the correspondence of Alexander I with his ministers, advisers and ambassadors. At the same time, the coalitionists did not skimp on phrases about their intentions /17/ to liberate France “from the chains” of Napoleon, and other countries “from the yoke” of France, to ensure “peace”, “security”, “freedom”, even “happiness” of all “ suffering humanity." It is this phraseology that many domestic historians, from tsarist to modern, are guided by (turning a blind eye to the true goals of the coalitions), considering the feudal coalitions of 1805-1807. “defensive alliances” that supposedly opposed the “expansion of France” and almost sought to create a system of collective security in Europe.
Napoleon in 1805-1807 acted more aggressively, but his opponents were more reactionary. The dialectics of history are such that the actions of each side in those predatory wars also had objectively progressive consequences: the coalitionists opposed Napoleon’s hegemony, and Napoleon destroyed the feudal foundations of Europe.
The War of 1805 began with Napoleon massing his troops at Boulogne on the English Channel to invade England. A mortal threat looms over England. In the event of a Napoleon landing, the independence of England would have been over, because it did not have the strength to fight Napoleon on land. The landing could take place any day now. Napoleon said that he was only waiting for foggy weather, which was not uncommon on the English Channel. At this critical moment for England, Russia entered the war. The Russian army under the command of General M.I. Kutuzova rushed to the West. In Bavaria, it was supposed to unite with the Austrian army of Field Marshal K. Mack, after which the allies hoped to jointly defeat Napoleon.
While the Austrians concentrated in Bavaria, Napoleon watched their movements without much concern. But as soon as he learned about the rapid march of the Russian army, he immediately (at the beginning of September 1805) closed the Boulogne camp and began transferring troops to Bavaria. England was saved.
Napoleon's plan was to prevent Kutuzov and Mack from uniting and defeat them individually. The strategists of the 3rd coalition, with compasses in hand, calculated that Napoleon would need 64 days to march from the English Channel to the Danube. Napoleon did it in 35 days. He surrounded Mack's army, locked it in the fortress of Ulm and forced it to lay down its arms. On November 15, Napoleon occupied the capital of Austria, Vienna, which had never surrendered to the enemy until then.
Now Kutuzov’s army was surrounded on three sides. Napoleon was preparing Mac's fate for her. Kutuzov had only 45 thousand people versus Napoleon’s 80 thousand. The only chance of salvation for Kutuzov was to have time, before the French ring closed, to slip to the northeast to the city of Brunn (Brno), where the reserve army that had just arrived from Russia /18/ was located. Kutuzov masterfully used this chance, escaped from the French pincers and linked up with the reserves.
Both Russian armies, totaling 70 thousand people, concentrated near the village of Austerlitz, near Brunn. They were joined by 15 thousand Austrians. The emperors of Russia and Austria - Alexander I and Franz I - arrived in Austerlitz. The allies knew that Napoleon brought only 73 thousand people to Austerlitz. Therefore, Alexander and Franz hoped for victory in the general battle. True, the commander-in-chief of the allied army, Kutuzov, was against the battle and proposed to retreat to the borders of Russia, but his proposal seemed cowardly to both emperors.
The general battle of Austerlitz, immediately called the “Battle of the Three Emperors,” took place on December 2, 1805. Napoleon won the most brilliant of his 50 victories in it. The Allies lost 27 thousand people (of which 21 thousand were Russians) and 155 guns (130 Russians). Kutuzov was wounded and almost captured. Alexander I galloped away from the battlefield, bursting into tears. Francis I fled even earlier than Alexander. Official St. Petersburg perceived Austerlitz all the more painfully because the Russian army for more than 100 years, after the Battle of Narva in 1700, did not lose general battles to anyone and that at Austerlitz, again, for the first time since Peter the Great, the Russian army was led by the tsar himself.
The reasons for such a terrible defeat of the allies lay in the superiority not only of the military genius of Napoleon, but also of his army: it was a mass army of the bourgeois type, did not know (unlike the Russian and Austrian feudal armies) any caste barriers between soldiers and officers, or meaningless drill, no cane discipline, but it was strong in equality of civil rights and opportunities. It was not for nothing that Napoleon said that each of his soldiers “carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack.”
The Austerlitz defeat marked the end of the 3rd coalition. Francis I confessed to Napoleon, and Austria left the war. However, England (despite the fact that its Prime Minister W. Pitt, having learned about Austerlitz, lost his mind from grief and soon died) and Russia did not lay down their arms. The following year they formed a new, 4th coalition against Napoleon, in which Prussia took the place of Austria, which had fallen out of action.
The coalitionists especially expected a lot from Prussia as the guardian of the power and glory of Frederick the Great. But the Prussian army, brought up and, as it were, preserved in the dogmas of Frederick, had long ago lost its combat effectiveness, and its generals were mediocre and weak (19 top generals in 1806 together had 1300 years of life behind them). But the royal court of Prussia was fussing, as under the “Great Frederick”, in a hurry to start a war with Napoleon before the approach of the allied troops, so as not to share the laurels of victory with them. And the war began (October 8, 1806), and after /19/ week, when not all the Prussians had yet learned about the start of the war, it was actually over. Almost all the armed forces of Prussia, concentrated in two armies led by His Majesty the King, the Three Highnesses - the nephews of Frederick the Great and four field marshals, were defeated on the same day, October 14, in two general battles at once - near Jena and Auerstedt. In the words of Heinrich Heine, “Napoleon blew on Prussia and it was gone.”
In defeated Berlin on November 21, 1806, Napoleon signed the historic decree on the continental blockade. He understood that if he did not crush England, his fight against coalitions would be like a fight against a multi-headed hydra, in which, instead of each severed head, a new one immediately grows. He could not conquer England by force of arms - this required a powerful fleet, which Napoleon did not have. And he decided to strangle England economically, to take it like a fortress by siege. His decree declared the British Isles blockaded and prohibited all countries dependent on France (and this included almost all of Europe) from any kind of communication, even postal, with England. Once again - after the Boulogne camp - England found itself in danger of destruction, and again, as in 1805, Russia came to its aid.
And this time tsarism fielded two armies against Napoleon - L.L. Bennigsen and F.F. Buxhoeveden, with a total population of 100 thousand people. The question of the commander-in-chief arose. Kutuzov fell out of favor after Austerlitz. Alexander I decided to entrust the main command to the most popular of the surviving Catherine commanders, comrades of P.A. Rumyantsev and A.V. Suvorov: Field Marshal M.F. was recognized as such. Kamensky, once perhaps the main rival in fame of Generalissimo Suvorov, and now an eccentric old man, deaf, half-blind and half out of his mind.
On December 7, 1806, Kamensky arrived among the troops and instantly created chaos among them. “Catherine’s last sword,” a contemporary sneered at him, “apparently lay in its sheath for too long and therefore became rusty.” His orders turned out to be so confusing that everything got mixed up, and for a whole week the commanders of individual units did not know where the army was, what was wrong with it, or whether it even existed. Kamensky himself, convinced of his own helplessness, six days later abandoned the army and went to his village, and before leaving he ordered: “Retreat, as best you can, within the borders of Russia.”
The new commander-in-chief was Baron Bennigsen, also a comrade-in-arms of Suvorov and one of the main assassins of Paul I. He did not retreat to Russia, but managed to survive in two major battles: he “played a draw” at Pultusk with the best of Napoleon’s marshals, J. Lannes, and at Preussisch -Eylau - with Napoleon himself. But on June 14, 1807, in the decisive battle of Friedland /20/, the Russian army was defeated for the same reasons that led to its defeat at Austerlitz. Friedland meant the end of the 4th coalition.
Alexander I was forced to ask Napoleon for peace. Napoleon proposed concluding not only peace, but also an alliance. Both emperors met in Tilsit and signed an alliance treaty on June 25 (July 7), 1807. Here are its main conditions. First. Russia recognizes all of Napoleon's conquests, and himself as emperor, and enters into an alliance with France. Second. Russia undertakes to break all relations with England and joins the continental blockade.
If the first condition hurt the prestige of the Russian Empire and the pride of the Tsar, who only recently called Napoleon “Antichrist”, and now had to address him, as is customary among monarchs, “Sovereign, my brother...”, then the second condition harmed the vital interests of Russia . Considering the role trade with England played in the economic life of Russia, we can say that the continental blockade meant a knife in the heart of the Russian economy.
True, the Treaty of Tilsit, through the mediation of Napoleon, stopped the war between Russia and Turkey (which began in 1806) and gave Russia freedom of action against Sweden, but these conditions in the treaty meant no more than two spoons of honey in the ointment. In general, the Tilsit Treaty was painful and humiliating for Russia to such an extent that the word “Tilsit” itself became a common noun, as a synonym for a particularly difficult treaty. A.S. Pushkin considered this word an “offensive sound” for Russian ears. It is no wonder that dissatisfaction with the Peace of Tilsit was spreading in Russia. According to the memoirs of observant contemporary F.F. Vigel, “from a noble courtier to an illiterate scribe, from a general to a soldier, everyone, obeying, grumbled with indignation.”
The Tilsit Treaty was something of a time bomb that was embedded in Russian-French relations. The terms of the agreement were impossible for Russia, because its economy could not develop without the English market, the main one for it at that time. Tsarism was forced to quietly resume relations with England, and no threats from Napoleon could force it to abandon this. Napoleon, for his part, having chosen the economic strangulation of England as the only means of victory over the main enemy, also did not want to retreat from his chosen path. As a result, Russian-French relations after Tilsit worsened year after year and inevitably led to war.
Time between 1807 and 1812 The history of Russia is full of foreign policy events. Over these years, tsarism waged /21/ successful wars with Turkey, Iran and Sweden (taking Finland from the latter in 1809), but each of these small wars was subordinated to preparations for a big war with France. It is significant that all allocations for the wars with Sweden, Iran and Turkey, taken together, amounted to less than 50% of military expenditures in 1809, while military expenditures, in anticipation of the inevitable clash with France, grew after Tilsit from year to year:
1808 - 53 million rubles.
1809 - 64.7 million rubles.
1810 - 92 million rubles.
1811 - 113.7 million rubles.
The main thing in the foreign policy system of tsarism in 1807-1811, as well as in 1805-1807, was relations with France, the expectation of war with it and preparations for war. Although the war began in 1812, it, as the famous wit, diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maistre aptly put it, “had already been declared by the treaty of peace and alliance at Tilsit.”
Duel of two diplomacy M., 1966. P. 142 (according to archival data)
The main actions took place in Bavaria and Austria. On August 27, the Danube Army of the Austrians under the nominal command of Archduke Ferdinand and the real command of General Mack (80 thousand people) invaded Bavaria, without waiting for the approach of the Russian army under the command of General M.I. Kutuzov (50 thousand people). Having learned about this, Napoleon began an urgent transfer of the main forces (220 thousand people) to the Rhine with the aim of defeating Macca's army before Kutuzov's troops approached it. The French emperor made a gigantic envelopment of the positions of the Austrian army from the north and by the beginning of October completed its encirclement in the Ulm region. After a futile attempt to break out of the bag, Makk capitulated with his entire army on October 8th. On the day of this surrender, Kutuzov’s troops were in the Braunau region (250 km from Ulm). By that time, they had already traveled more than a thousand kilometers from the borders of Russia in two months to connect with Makk. Now 50 thousand soldiers, tired of the difficult transition, were left alone with the 200 thousand strong Napoleonic army quickly approaching them. In this situation, Kutuzov decided to retreat back. On October 13, 1805, the famous Kutuzov march-maneuver from Braunau to Olmutz (now Olomouc, Czech Republic) began.
March-maneuver of Kutuzov (1805). Napoleon's plan was to encircle the Russian army from the flanks, cut off its retreat, press it to the Danube and destroy it, like Macca's army. The French emperor pinned his main hopes on the corps of Marshal Mortier (25 thousand people), which was directed along the left bank of the Danube (the Russian army was retreating along the right bank). Mortier's task was to quickly reach the bridge over the Danube near the city of Krems, cross to the right side and go to Kutuzov's rear, cutting off the Russians' path to retreat. The Austrian command wanted to use Kutuzov's army to defend Vienna and suggested that he retreat to the capital of Austria. However, the Russian commander was not primarily thinking about Vienna, but about saving his army. He decided to get ahead of Mortier, reach the nearest crossing at Krems, cross to the left side and, having destroyed the bridge, break away from pursuit. Kutuzov's retreat was somewhat facilitated by the fact that on his way there were many rivers (tributaries of the Danube), on which it was possible to hold back the onslaught of the French with rearguard battles. Otherwise, the Russian army suffered severe hardships. Kutuzov received neither carts, nor shells, nor provisions, nor clothing - nothing that the Austrians promised him. “We are marching at night, we have turned black... officers and soldiers are barefoot, without bread...” General Dmitry Dokhturov, a participant in this campaign, wrote home. Napoleon tried to delay the movement of Kutuzov's army, covering it from the flanks. But the Russian rearguard, led by General Bagration (5 thousand people), in stubborn battles at Lambach and Amstetten (October 19 and 24), repelled the forces of the French vanguard under the command of Marshal Murat, which was five times superior to it. Meanwhile, the main forces of Kutuzov's army hurried to Krems, trying to get ahead of Mortier's corps.
On October 28, Kutuzov reached Krems before the French and managed to transport his army across the Danube. When the last soldiers of the Russian rearguard stepped onto the left bank, French cavalrymen burst onto the bridge. At that moment, the sappers blew up the bridge, and it collapsed into the Danube along with its pursuers. The Russian and French armies were separated by a wide river.
On October 29, 1805, Mortier's corps was attacked near Dürenstein by Russian troops under the command of generals Miloradovich and Dokhturov (21 thousand people). Having set up a screen at Durenstein from Miloradovich's units, Kutuzov sent Dokhturov around to strike the French flank and rear. Due to the lack of maps, the quickly approaching autumn night and the mistakes of the guides, Dokhturov lost his way. Miloradovich, who did not wait for him, attacked the French with his own forces, thereby giving a kind of signal to his lost colleague. Based on the sounds of shots, Dokhturov, who was already walking at random, was able to determine the location of the battle and arrived in time at the right moment. The French, who did not expect a new blow, were defeated in front of their emperor, who was on the other side and could not help them. The “Krem massacre” cost the French over 5.5 thousand people. Mortier retreated with the remnants of the broken corps and cleared the left bank of the Danube. The damage to the Russians is approximately 3 thousand people. This was the first victory in history of Russian troops over the Napoleonic army. The success at Dürenstein completed the first stage of Kutuzov's famous withdrawal maneuver from Braunau to Krems.
Kutuzov's transition to the left bank of the Danube and the defeat of Mortier dramatically changed the situation. Kutuzov broke away from his pursuers and could calmly move towards Olmutz to join the second Russian army coming from Russia under the command of General Buxhoeveden. For the first time in many days, the soldiers, tormented by battles and hardships, could catch their breath a little. But Napoleon did not consider himself a loser. He threw his vanguard corps, led by Marshals Dann and Murat, towards Vienna, where the last bridge across the Danube was located. Having captured the capital of Austria, they hastened to the preserved crossing. It was defended by an Austrian detachment under the command of Prince Auesberg. Having approached the bridge, the French marshals began to convince the prince that they had already concluded a truce with the Austrians. At this time, French soldiers burst onto the bridge and pushed the Austrians back. Thus, on October 31, the last remaining crossing of the Danube fell into the hands of the French. Without wasting time, the French vanguard (30 thousand people) rushed across Kutuzov’s army. The same, having learned about what had happened from his intelligence, urgently moved from Krems to Znaim. Kutuzov sent a detachment of General Bagration to meet the French, who, with a night march, managed to get ahead of Murat's units and block their path near the village of Shengraben. Murat decided not to get involved in a battle against the entire Russian army, but to wait for Napoleon’s main forces. In order to detain the Russians, the French marshal suggested that the Russian commander conclude a truce and, during the negotiations, stop the movement of the Russian army towards Znaim. Kutuzov immediately agreed, offering the French even more favorable terms of the truce than they expected.
While Murat sent a courier to Napoleon to discuss new Russian proposals, Kutuzov managed to withdraw the army from the “Tsnai trap” and continued on his way to Olmutz. Finally realizing that he had been fooled, on November 4 Murat rushed in pursuit with a 30,000-strong vanguard. But his path was blocked by Bagration’s detachment remaining at Shengraben. The Russians were attacked by the forces of three French marshals (Lanne, Murat and Soult), who had a six-fold superiority. However, the fierce attempts of the French to encircle and destroy Bagration’s detachment were defeated by the unshakable fortitude of the Russian soldiers. Murat attacked Schöngraben head-on, while Lannes and Soult tried to encircle the Russians from the flanks. The unequal and brutal battle lasted the whole day. Bagration, left to “inevitable death,” not only heroically repulsed all attacks, but also escaped from Shengraben. The Russians retreated to Gutensdorf, continuing to repel the onslaught. Murat tried to break through in the center, but was stopped by cannon fire and a fire in Shengraben, set on fire by Russian artillerymen. The battle did not subside until midnight. In the dead of night, Bagration and the remnants of his detachment made their way through the encirclement with a bayonet attack. On November 6, his detachment, which had lost about half of its strength in battle, overtook Kutuzov’s army on the march. The participants in the Shengraben battle were then awarded a special badge with the inscription “5 versus 30.” On November 10, Kutuzov reached Olmutz, where he united with Austrian units and the army of General Buxhoeveden, who had arrived from Russia. Kutuzov’s famous more than 400-kilometer march maneuver was successfully completed. He went down in military history as an outstanding example of strategic maneuver.
Battle of Austerlitz (1805). After Kutuzov's army escaped the clutches of Napoleon and reached Olmutz, the position of the French emperor deteriorated sharply. His troops' communications were stretched thin. Having covered over a thousand kilometers from the banks of the Rhine, Napoleon brought only a third of his army (73 thousand people) to Olmutz. The rest were concentrated on protecting communications. The French went far into the interior of a hostile country. At Olmütz they were confronted by the already numerically superior combined forces of the Allies (86 thousand people, of which 72 thousand Russians and 14 thousand Austrians). From the south, from Italy and Tyrol, the troops of the Austrian Archdukes Charles and John (80 thousand people) advanced to Napoleon's rear. Any day now it was expected that they would act on the side of Prussia's allies. In a word, the situation for Napoleon was developing threateningly. His army could have been cut off and surrounded far from its native borders by more numerous Allied forces. Under these conditions, Napoleon decided to give battle to the army standing at Olmutz, led by Kutuzov. The Russian commander did not at all strive for a general battle. He wanted to wait for the Austrian armies to approach from the south, but in the meantime he proposed further luring the French to the east, to Galicia. But the emperors of Austria and Russia who were in the troops accepted the plan of the chief of staff of the allied forces, Austrian General Weyrother, who insisted on a battle. As a result, the allied army moved towards Napoleon’s army stationed near the village of Austerlitz (now the city of Slavkov in the Czech Republic). Playing along with the offensive impulse of the allies, the French emperor ordered his units to leave the Pratsen heights dominating the area and retreat to the lowlands. By withdrawing from this strong defensive position, he was effectively inviting the Allies to attack him in the field. Weyrother proposed delivering the main blow to the right flank of the Napoleonic army in order to cut it off from communications with Vienna. With the help of spies and a review of the disposition of the allied army, Napoleon understood this plan for himself, on the basis of which he developed his own. The French emperor decided to deliver the main blow in the center, on the Pratsen Heights, in order to divide the allied army and smash it piece by piece. To do this, he left units of Marshal Davout on the right flank, to whom he assigned a defensive task. In the center of the French troops, the main shock units were located under the command of Marshals Soult and Bernadotte.
On November 20, 1805, at 8 o'clock in the morning, units under the command of General Buxhoeveden launched an attack on the right flag of the French. Davout stubbornly defended himself, but gradually began to retreat, drawing an increasing number of allied units into the swampy valley near the villages of Sokolnitz and Telnitz. Thus, the allied army weakened its center, where the Pratsen Heights dominated the area. In the end, under pressure from Emperor Alexander I, Kutuzov gave the order to the last shock column, led by General Kolovrat, to descend from these heights. Seeing that the Pratsen Heights had been cleared of significant allied forces, Napoleon moved Soult's shock corps there. With a swift attack, the French captured the heights and cut the Russian-Austrian front in two. Bernadotte's corps rushed into the gap made by Soult. Now the French were able to bypass and encircle the main Allied forces, which were drawn into battle against Davout's flank. In addition, with the capture of the heights, Bernadotte was able to bypass the right flank of the Allies under the command of General Bagration, who had to retreat due to the threat of encirclement. But the most tragic situation developed on the left flank of the allied forces, which, advancing on Davout’s positions, were now caught in the pocket in the area of Telnitsy and Sokolnitsy. The counterattack of the Cavalry Guard Regiment led by General Depreradovich saved the Russians from complete defeat. Having suffered heavy losses, the cavalry guards delayed the onslaught of the French, which allowed many of those who were surrounded to break through to their own. The retreat on the left flank was led by General Dmitry Sergeevich Dokhturov, who did not succumb to the general panic. He rallied the remnants of the broken units around himself and fought his way out of the encirclement. During the retreat across the lake, the thin ice of which was broken by French artillery fire, many soldiers drowned. Many surrendered, including the commander of one of the columns, General Przybyshevsky (on his return to Russia, he was demoted to private for this). Emperor Alexander I could also have found himself captured. In the confusion that arose, he was abandoned by his retinue and at one time remained on the battlefield only with his personal physician and two Cossacks. The Allies suffered a crushing defeat. They lost a third of their army killed, wounded and captured (27 thousand people, of which 21 thousand were Russian), 180 guns, 40 banners. Kutuzov himself was wounded in the battle. The French lost 12 thousand people.
Peace of Presburg (December 26, 1805). With the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon was finally able to successfully complete this campaign of missed opportunities, in which each side had its own chance to emerge victorious. Austerlitz changed the political horizon of Europe, on which Napoleon's star now confidently and brightly rose. After this battle, the Third Coalition disintegrated. Austria withdrew from the war by signing the Peace of Presburg with France. Venice, Istria, Dalmatia went to Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, Tyrol - to Napoleon's ally Bavaria. Austria was obliged to pay a huge indemnity of 40 million florins. Austerlitz is one of the most brutal defeats of the Russian army in the 19th century. It put an end to the era of brilliant victories of Russian weapons that began on the Poltava fields. Before Austerlitz, Russian warriors considered themselves invincible. Now this confidence has come to an end. In subsequent battles with Napoleon, right up to the final stage of the Patriotic War (1812), the Russians usually took a defensive position. But despite this, even the enemy was forced to recognize the high level of Russian troops. Subsequently assessing this campaign, Napoleon stated: “The Russian army of 1805 was the best of all those ever deployed against me.”
Peace of Paris (20 July 1806). The peace between Russia and France provided for the evacuation of Russian troops from Dalmatia and French troops from Montenegro, and a guarantee of the territorial integrity of Turkey. In view of the formation of the 4th anti-Napoleonic coalition, the Russian government refused to ratify the Peace of Paris and began a new war with France (1806-1807).
"From Ancient Rus' to the Russian Empire." Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.
In 1805, Great Britain, Austria, Russia, the Kingdom of Naples and Sweden formed the Third Coalition against France. While the coalition fleet fought successfully at sea, the armies acted unsuccessfully and were defeated, so the coalition disintegrated quite quickly - in December.
Napoleon had been planning an invasion of England since the peace of Amiens in 1802, signed by Cornwallis for England and Joseph Bonaparte for France. At this time (summer 1805), Napoleon's 180,000-strong army (the "Grand Army") stood in Boulogne, preparing to land in England. However, he needed to achieve naval superiority to make the invasion successful, or at least to draw the Royal Navy away from the English Channel. An elaborate plan to distract the British by threatening their advantage in the West Indies failed when the Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve was defeated and forced to turn back off Cape Finistiri. Villeneuve was blockaded near the city of Cadiz, then he broke through to Naples with heavy losses on October 19, but was defeated and captured during the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21 by British Admiral Nelson. By this time, Napoleon already had sufficient forces; he was almost ready to invade England. But the Battle of Trafalgar put an end to the real existence of the French combat fleet for a long time.
In addition, Napoleon received information that Russian troops had already moved to join the Austrians, that the latter were ready for an offensive war against him and his German allies, and that the enemy was already moving to the west. The landing on the British Isles had to be postponed indefinitely. It was then that Napoleon said: “If I am not in London in 15 days, then I must be in Vienna in mid-November.”
The coalition, seeking to take advantage of Napoleon's concentration of forces in Boulogne, planned to attack Italy and Bavaria. The allied armies organized in Germany and Italy, led by Baron Karl Mack von Leiberich, were supposed to repel the enemy's invasion in Bavaria, namely the Russian army led by Kutuzov. The Bavarians gave up rather quickly and left their positions, leaving Munich. After Bavaria took Napoleon's side, General Mack's 72,000-strong army invaded its borders, while the Russian army remained in Poland. As a result of unjustified haste, the Austrians were left alone with the French and were forced to engage in battle before the Russians arrived.
Napoleon left Boulogne and sent all his armies to Bavaria to defeat the enemy. Near Ulm, Napoleon completely defeated the Austrians and headed towards the Russian troops. Kutuzov was forced to retreat until reinforcements were received to the northern part of Austria, and then to the Bavarian-Austrian border. Vienna was abandoned.
Soon the Battle of Austerlitz took place, the study of which is still ongoing in all military academies around the world.
According to the peace in Presburg, Austria left the ranks of the enemies of the French and became an ally of France. Austrian lands in Italy were ceded to the French satellites.
The Russians and Prussians continued to fight France as part of the Fourth Coalition (1805-1807).
War of the Fourth Coalition
The War of the Fourth Coalition is the war of Napoleonic France and its satellites in 1806-1807. against a coalition of great powers (Russia, Prussia, England). It began with the attack of Royal Prussia on France. But in two general battles near Jena and Auerstedt, Napoleon defeated the Prussians and on October 27, 1806 entered Berlin. In December 1806, the imperial Russian army entered the war. Fierce battles near Charnov, Golymin and Pultusk in December 1806 did not reveal any winners. The general battle of the winter campaign took place near Eylau in February 1807. In a bloody battle between the main forces of the French Grand Army of Napoleon and the Russian under the command of General. There were no winners for L.L. Bennigsen. Since Bennigsen retreated the night after the battle, Napoleon declared himself the winner. Both sides were drained of blood by the three-month fruitless struggle and were glad for the onset of thaw, which put an end to hostilities until May. By this time, the forces of the Russian army were distracted by the outbreak of war with the Ottoman Empire, and therefore Napoleon received a huge numerical superiority. By the beginning of the spring campaign, he had 190,000 soldiers against 100,000 Russians. Near Heilsberg, Bennigsen successfully repelled the French attack. army, but near Friedland the numerical superiority of the Great Army played a decisive role. Napoleon with 85,000 soldiers inflicted a heavy defeat on the Russian army of 60,000 people.
Alexander I came to power in a tense and extremely difficult international situation for Russia. Napoleonic France sought dominance in Europe and potentially threatened Russia. Meanwhile, Russia was conducting friendly negotiations with France and was at war with England, France's main enemy. This position, which Alexander inherited from Paul, did not suit the Russian nobles at all.
Firstly, Russia maintained long-standing and mutually beneficial economic ties with England. By 1801, England absorbed 37% of all Russian exports (63% of all merchants trading with Russia were British). France, incomparably less rich than England, never delivered and could not deliver such benefits to Russia. Secondly, England was a respectable, legitimate monarchy, while France was a rebel country, thoroughly imbued with a revolutionary spirit, a country headed by an upstart, a rootless warrior. /15/ Finally, thirdly, England was in good relations with other legitimate, i.e., feudal, monarchies of Europe: Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain. France, precisely as a rebel country, opposed the united front of all other powers.
Thus, the priority foreign policy task of the government of Alexander I was to restore friendship with England. But while tsarism did not intend to fight with France, the new government needed time to organize urgent internal affairs. In 1801-1803 it “flirtated” with England and France, taking advantage of their contradictions and interest in Russian assistance. “We need to take such a position,” Count V.P. formulated the opinion of the Secret Committee on July 10, 1801. Kochubey - to become desirable to everyone, without accepting any obligations towards anyone.”
Literally from the very first day of the new reign, this “flirting” policy began to be implemented and remained a priority for three years. First of all, relations with England were normalized. Already on the night of March 12, 1801, a few minutes after Paul was strangled, when the body of the murdered emperor had not yet cooled down, the new king commanded; return the Cossack regiments of Ataman M.I. Platov, sent by order of Paul on a campaign against India - the treasury of England, and soon, on June 5 (17), Russia concluded an agreement on mutual friendship with England. At the same time, the tsarist government continued negotiations with France and on September 26 (October 8), 1801, concluded them with the signing of a peace agreement. After France and England signed a peace treaty in March 1802, international tensions eased. For the first time in many years, peace was established in Europe. All this allowed tsarism not only to engage in internal reforms, but also to resolve in the fall of 1801 the border issue that had been protracted since 1783 about the annexation of Georgia to Russia.
But the peace in Europe was short-lived. Napoleon used it to prepare for war with England. Seeing this, England itself declared war on France in May 1803 and began to equip at its own expense the next, 3rd coalition of European powers against France (the previous two were defeated by Napoleon in 1797 and 1800). Russia became the main force of the 3rd coalition.
The immediate impetus for Russia's action against France was the events that took place in the spring of 1804. In March, on the orders of Napoleon, a French detachment invaded the territory of the German principality of Baden (4 km from the French border), captured there and took from there to France one of the members of the Bourbon royal family Duke of Enghien. In France, the Duke was tried and executed as the organizer of conspiracies against Napoleon. /16/
This event caused a storm of indignation in England and the courts of Europe. Official mourning was declared at the Russian court. Alexander I expressed an angry protest to Napoleon against the reprisal of the Duke. Napoleon sent Alexander his famous, very poisonous answer in the form of a question: if Alexander knew that his father’s killers were 4 km from the Russian border, would he not have ordered their capture? It was impossible to insult the Tsar more strongly by openly calling him a parricide in front of the whole of Europe. After all, all of Europe knew that Paul was killed by Platon Zubov, Leonty Bennigsen, Peter Palen and that Alexander did not dare to lay a finger on them after his accession, although they did not live “4 km from the Russian border,” but in the capital of Russia and easily visited royal palace.
Having familiarized himself with Napoleon's response, Alexander I immediately broke off relations with France and began to quickly put together a 3rd coalition. If the initiator of the coalition was the English Prime Minister W. Pitt, then Alexander became its soul and organizer. It was he who, for a whole year, convened and rallied the coalitionists, keeping England, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Neapolitan and Sardinian kingdoms in the orbit of his efforts. In the spring of 1805, a series of bloody wars began in Europe, which lasted for 10 years.
Coalition wars 1805-1807 were fought over territorial claims and mainly because of dominance in Europe, which was claimed by each of the five great powers of that time: France, England, Russia, Austria, Prussia. In addition, the coalitionists aimed to restore in Europe, right up to France itself, the feudal regimes overthrown by the French Revolution and Napoleon. These goals are attested in the official documents of the 3rd and 4th coalitions (as, indeed, both previous and all subsequent ones): in the Russian-English, Russian-Austrian and Russian-Prussian (Potsdam and Bartenstein) declarations of 1804-1807. , as well as in the correspondence of Alexander I with his ministers, advisers and ambassadors. At the same time, the coalitionists did not skimp on phrases about their intentions /17/ to liberate France “from the chains” of Napoleon, and other countries “from the yoke” of France, to ensure “peace”, “security”, “freedom”, even “happiness” of all “ suffering humanity." It is this phraseology that many domestic historians, from tsarist to modern, are guided by (turning a blind eye to the true goals of the coalitions), considering the feudal coalitions of 1805-1807. “defensive alliances” that supposedly opposed the “expansion of France” and almost sought to create a system of collective security in Europe.
Napoleon in 1805-1807 acted more aggressively, but his opponents were more reactionary. The dialectics of history are such that the actions of each side in those predatory wars also had objectively progressive consequences: the coalitionists opposed Napoleon’s hegemony, and Napoleon destroyed the feudal foundations of Europe.
The War of 1805 began with Napoleon massing his troops at Boulogne on the English Channel to invade England. A mortal threat looms over England. In the event of a Napoleon landing, the independence of England would have been over, because it did not have the strength to fight Napoleon on land. The landing could take place any day now. Napoleon said that he was only waiting for foggy weather, which was not uncommon on the English Channel. At this critical moment for England, Russia entered the war. The Russian army under the command of General M.I. Kutuzova rushed to the West. In Bavaria, it was supposed to unite with the Austrian army of Field Marshal K. Mack, after which the allies hoped to jointly defeat Napoleon.
While the Austrians concentrated in Bavaria, Napoleon watched their movements without much concern. But as soon as he learned about the rapid march of the Russian army, he immediately (at the beginning of September 1805) closed the Boulogne camp and began transferring troops to Bavaria. England was saved.
Napoleon's plan was to prevent Kutuzov and Mack from uniting and defeat them individually. The strategists of the 3rd coalition, with compasses in hand, calculated that Napoleon would need 64 days to march from the English Channel to the Danube. Napoleon did it in 35 days. He surrounded Mack's army, locked it in the fortress of Ulm and forced it to lay down its arms. On November 15, Napoleon occupied the capital of Austria, Vienna, which had never surrendered to the enemy until then.
Now Kutuzov’s army was surrounded on three sides. Napoleon was preparing Mac's fate for her. Kutuzov had only 45 thousand people versus Napoleon’s 80 thousand. The only chance of salvation for Kutuzov was to have time, before the French ring closed, to slip to the northeast to the city of Brunn (Brno), where the reserve army that had just arrived from Russia /18/ was located. Kutuzov masterfully used this chance, escaped from the French pincers and linked up with the reserves.
Both Russian armies, totaling 70 thousand people, concentrated near the village of Austerlitz, near Brunn. They were joined by 15 thousand Austrians. The emperors of Russia and Austria - Alexander I and Franz I - arrived in Austerlitz. The allies knew that Napoleon brought only 73 thousand people to Austerlitz. Therefore, Alexander and Franz hoped for victory in the general battle. True, the commander-in-chief of the allied army, Kutuzov, was against the battle and proposed to retreat to the borders of Russia, but his proposal seemed cowardly to both emperors.
The general battle of Austerlitz, immediately called the “Battle of the Three Emperors,” took place on December 2, 1805. Napoleon won the most brilliant of his 50 victories in it. The Allies lost 27 thousand people (of which 21 thousand were Russians) and 155 guns (130 Russians). Kutuzov was wounded and almost captured. Alexander I galloped away from the battlefield, bursting into tears. Francis I fled even earlier than Alexander. Official St. Petersburg perceived Austerlitz all the more painfully because the Russian army for more than 100 years, after the Battle of Narva in 1700, did not lose general battles to anyone and that at Austerlitz, again, for the first time since Peter the Great, the Russian army was led by the tsar himself.
The reasons for such a terrible defeat of the allies lay in the superiority not only of the military genius of Napoleon, but also of his army: it was a mass army of the bourgeois type, did not know (unlike the Russian and Austrian feudal armies) any caste barriers between soldiers and officers, or meaningless drill, no cane discipline, but it was strong in equality of civil rights and opportunities. It was not for nothing that Napoleon said that each of his soldiers “carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack.”
The Austerlitz defeat marked the end of the 3rd coalition. Francis I confessed to Napoleon, and Austria left the war. However, England (despite the fact that its Prime Minister W. Pitt, having learned about Austerlitz, lost his mind from grief and soon died) and Russia did not lay down their arms. The following year they formed a new, 4th coalition against Napoleon, in which Prussia took the place of Austria, which had fallen out of action.
The coalitionists especially expected a lot from Prussia as the guardian of the power and glory of Frederick the Great. But the Prussian army, brought up and, as it were, preserved in the dogmas of Frederick, had long ago lost its combat effectiveness, and its generals were mediocre and weak (19 top generals in 1806 together had 1300 years of life behind them). But the royal court of Prussia was fussing, as under the “Great Frederick”, in a hurry to start a war with Napoleon before the approach of the allied troops, so as not to share the laurels of victory with them. And the war began (October 8, 1806), and after /19/ week, when not all the Prussians had yet learned about the start of the war, it was actually over. Almost all the armed forces of Prussia, concentrated in two armies led by His Majesty the King, the Three Highnesses - the nephews of Frederick the Great and four field marshals, were defeated on the same day, October 14, in two general battles at once - near Jena and Auerstedt. In the words of Heinrich Heine, “Napoleon blew on Prussia and it was gone.”
In defeated Berlin on November 21, 1806, Napoleon signed the historic decree on the continental blockade. He understood that if he did not crush England, his fight against coalitions would be like a fight against a multi-headed hydra, in which, instead of each severed head, a new one immediately grows. He could not conquer England by force of arms - this required a powerful fleet, which Napoleon did not have. And he decided to strangle England economically, to take it like a fortress by siege. His decree declared the British Isles blockaded and prohibited all countries dependent on France (and this included almost all of Europe) from any kind of communication, even postal, with England. Once again - after the Boulogne camp - England found itself under the threat of destruction, and again, as in 1805, Russia came to its aid.
And this time tsarism fielded two armies against Napoleon - L.L. Bennigsen and F.F. Buxhoeveden, with a total population of 100 thousand people. The question of the commander-in-chief arose. Kutuzov fell out of favor after Austerlitz. Alexander I decided to entrust the main command to the most popular of the surviving Catherine commanders, comrades of P.A. Rumyantsev and A.V. Suvorov: Field Marshal M.F. was recognized as such. Kamensky, once perhaps the main rival in fame of Generalissimo Suvorov, and now an eccentric old man, deaf, half-blind and half out of his mind.
On December 7, 1806, Kamensky arrived among the troops and instantly created chaos among them. “Catherine’s last sword,” a contemporary sneered at him, “apparently lay in its sheath for too long and therefore became rusty.” His orders turned out to be so confusing that everything got mixed up, and for a whole week the commanders of individual units did not know where the army was, what was wrong with it, or whether it even existed. Kamensky himself, convinced of his own helplessness, six days later abandoned the army and went to his village, and before leaving he ordered: “Retreat, as best you can, within the borders of Russia.”
The new commander-in-chief was Baron Bennigsen, also a comrade-in-arms of Suvorov and one of the main assassins of Paul I. He did not retreat to Russia, but managed to survive in two major battles: he “played a draw” at Pultusk with the best of Napoleon’s marshals, J. Lannes, and at Preussisch -Eylau - with Napoleon himself. But on June 14, 1807, in the decisive battle of Friedland /20/, the Russian army was defeated for the same reasons that led to its defeat at Austerlitz. Friedland meant the end of the 4th coalition.
Alexander I was forced to ask Napoleon for peace. Napoleon proposed concluding not only peace, but also an alliance. Both emperors met in Tilsit and signed an alliance treaty on June 25 (July 7), 1807. Here are its main conditions. First. Russia recognizes all of Napoleon's conquests, and himself as emperor, and enters into an alliance with France. Second. Russia undertakes to break all relations with England and joins the continental blockade.
If the first condition hurt the prestige of the Russian Empire and the pride of the Tsar, who only recently called Napoleon “Antichrist”, and now had to address him, as is customary among monarchs, “Sovereign, my brother...”, then the second condition harmed the vital interests of Russia. Considering the role trade with England played in the economic life of Russia, we can say that the continental blockade meant a knife in the heart of the Russian economy.
True, the Treaty of Tilsit, through the mediation of Napoleon, stopped the war between Russia and Turkey (which began in 1806) and gave Russia freedom of action against Sweden, but these conditions in the treaty meant no more than two spoons of honey in the ointment. In general, the Tilsit Treaty was painful and humiliating for Russia to such an extent that the word “Tilsit” itself became a common noun, as a synonym for a particularly difficult treaty. A.S. Pushkin considered this word an “offensive sound” for Russian ears. It is no wonder that dissatisfaction with the Peace of Tilsit was spreading in Russia. According to the memoirs of observant contemporary F.F. Vigel, “from a noble courtier to an illiterate scribe, from a general to a soldier, everyone, obeying, grumbled with indignation.”
The Tilsit Treaty was something of a time bomb that was embedded in Russian-French relations. The terms of the agreement were impossible for Russia, because its economy could not develop without the English market, the main one for it at that time. Tsarism was forced to quietly resume relations with England, and no threats from Napoleon could force it to abandon this. Napoleon, for his part, having chosen the economic strangulation of England as the only means of victory over the main enemy, also did not want to retreat from his chosen path. As a result, Russian-French relations after Tilsit worsened year after year and inevitably led to war.
Time between 1807 and 1812 The history of Russia is full of foreign policy events. Over these years, tsarism waged /21/ successful wars with Turkey, Iran and Sweden (taking Finland from the latter in 1809), but each of these small wars was subordinated to preparations for a big war with France. It is significant that all allocations for the wars with Sweden, Iran and Turkey, taken together, amounted to less than 50% of military expenditures in 1809, while military expenditures, in anticipation of the inevitable clash with France, grew after Tilsit from year to year:
1808 - 53 million rubles.
1809 - 64.7 million rubles.
1810 - 92 million rubles.
1811 - 113.7 million rubles.
The main thing in the foreign policy system of tsarism in 1807-1811, as well as in 1805-1807, was relations with France, the expectation of war with it and preparations for war. Although the war began in 1812, it, as the famous wit, diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maistre aptly put it, “had already been declared by the treaty of peace and alliance at Tilsit.”
BATTLE OF KREMS 1805, battle between Russian and French troops on October 30. (November 11) in the area of Krems (Austria) during the Russian-Austro-French War of 1805.
After the surrender of the Austrians near Ulm, the Russian army under the command of infantry general M.I. Kutuzova (50 thousand people) retreated with rearguard battles along the right bank of the Danube to join the Russian corps under the command of infantry general F.F. Buxhoeveden (27 thousand people). Napoleon I, 180 thousand. whose army was pursuing Kutuzov’s army, he transferred the corps of Marshal E. Mortier near Linz to the left bank of the Danube in order to cut off the retreat path of the Russian troops at Krems, and with his main forces he set the task of encircling and destroying them in the area of St. Pölten. Having unraveled the enemy's plan, Kutuzov turned the army north, then transported it to the left bank of the Danube near the city of Mautern, thereby forestalling the exit of Mortier's corps to Krems. With this maneuver, Kutuzov thwarted Napoleon's plan and created the conditions for the defeat of the French. corps, stretched along the Danube in 3 divisional columns at intervals of daily travel.
Organizing an attack on the French corps, Kutuzov allocated a detachment of Lieutenant General M.A. Miloradovich (6 battalions, 2 squadrons) to cover the city of Durnstein from the approach of the French; The lieutenant general's detachment (21 battalion, 2 squadrons, 2 regiments) was given the task of making a deep enveloping maneuver to reach Durnstein and strike at the enemy's flank and rear. On the night of October 30. (November 11) Dokhturov’s detachment, leaving at the village. Egelze detachment of Major General G.M. Strika (5 battalions, 2 regiments), set out in three columns along the mountain paths to Durnstein. In the morning, Mortier, who was in the advanced division, attacked Miloradovich’s detachment with superior forces and began to push him back. But in the afternoon, Dokhturov’s units descended into the valley and immediately entered the battle. The French, sandwiched between the mountains and the river, were destroyed by artillery fire and rapid attacks by the Russians. Napoleon was powerless to provide them with any help. French losses amounted to approx. 4 thousand killed and wounded. Russian troops captured more than 1,500 prisoners, 5 guns, a banner and a lot of military equipment. The remnants of the French troops crossed the Danube by boat under cover of darkness.
The defeat of the French at Krems was Napoleon's first serious failure. He called this battle the “Battle of Krems.” Kutuzov thwarted Napoleon's plan to encircle the Russian army and created favorable conditions for its connection with the Buxhoeveden corps.
BATTLE OF SCHONGRABEN, battle on November 4 (16) between Russian and French troops during the Russian-Austro-French War of 1805 near the village of Schongraben near the city of Hollabrunn (Austria).
The Russian army (infantry general M.I. Kutuzov), moving after the Battle of Krems 1805 to Znaim, found itself in a difficult situation due to the surrender of Vienna by the Austrians. Kutuzov sent a rearguard (6 thousand people; Major General P.I. Bagration) to Hollabrunn with the task of delaying the French vanguard (30 thousand people; Marshal I. Murat) and allowing the Russian army to get out from under the threat that threatened it flank strike. After a forced march over rough roads, the Russian rearguard took over on November 3 (15). position 5 km north of Hollabrunn near the villages of Schöngraben and Grund. Around noon 4 (16) Nov. The French vanguard attacked the Russian position. The Russians repelled enemy attacks with fire and bayonets, launched counterattacks themselves, but under the pressure of superior French forces they retreated to new positions. At Grund, the French managed to get behind the Russian rearguard. The Russian regiments, fighting hand-to-hand, made their way through the enemy's battle formations and by 11 p.m. left the battle. Having captured the French banner and 53 prisoners, Bagration's detachment 6 (18) November. united with the Russian army. Russian losses amounted to 2208 people. killed and wounded, 12 guns.
In the battle of Schöngraben, the Russian rearguard delayed the many times superior forces of the French and ensured the withdrawal of the main forces of the Russian army to Olmütz (Olomouc), thereby protecting it from a flank attack by the French. After the battle, Bagration’s detachment received the name “team of heroes.”
BATTLE OF AUSTERLIZ 1805, general battle between Russian-Austrian and French troops on November 20. (December 2) in the region of Austerlitz (Slavkov, Czech Republic) during the Russian-Austro-French War of 1805.
In mid-November, the Russian-Austrian army was located in the region of Olmutz (Olomouc) in a position convenient for defense. Napoleon's army approached Brunn (Brno). Emperor Alexander I, who was with the Allied army, contrary to the intention of the commander of the Russian-Austrian troops, infantry general M.I. Kutuzov to wait for the concentration of all allied forces, insisted on going on the offensive. With this, he actually removed Kutuzov from leading the troops. Alexander I’s plan, proposed to him by the chief of staff of the Allied forces, Austrian General F. Weyrother, provided for a main attack on the enemy’s right flank in three columns, followed by a turn to the north; the fourth column was to advance through the Pratsen Heights to Kobelnitz; the fifth column had the task of pinning down the enemy and ensuring an outflanking maneuver of the main forces of the allied army. Napoleon, informed in advance by intelligence about the plans of the allies, took a position behind the Goldbach and Bozenitsky streams, planning to separate the Russian-Austrian forces with a blow to the center. troops, go to the flank and rear of the main Allied group and destroy them separately.
19 Nov (December 1), the allied army, having completed a 60-km march in 4 days, took up positions on the Kovalovits line, Pratsen Heights. By the time of the battle, the Allies had 84,580 people (67,700 infantry and 16,880 cavalry) with 330 guns, the size of the French army reached 74 thousand people (60 thousand infantry and 14 thousand cavalry) with 250 guns. At 7 a.m. 20 Nov. (Dec. 2) The Allies went on the offensive. Circumventing columns of Lieutenant General D.S. Dokhturova, and I.Ya. Przhibyshevsky, deployed in two lines each, under the overall command of Infantry General F.F. Buxhoeveden was attacked by the French right flank. army. The fourth column of the Austrian General I. Kolovrat and Lieutenant General M.A. Miloradovich advanced to the Pratsen Heights. The fifth column, consisting of the Austrian cavalry of General I. Liechtenstein, and the vanguard of the allied army under command. Lieutenant General P.I. Bagration was covered by the right flank of the Allied army. The reserve (Russian guard) was located behind the heights. The main forces of the Allies met increasing resistance from the approaching units of Marshal L. Davout's corps, but they still occupied Telnitz, Sokolnitz and the Castle. To strengthen them, Alexander I ordered the Kolovrat-Miloradovich column to leave the Pratsen Heights and follow to the main forces. Napoleon took advantage of this Allied miscalculation. At 9 o'clock the corps of Marshal N. Sult attacked the Pratsen Heights. The Kolovrat-Miloradovich column, having suffered losses, retreated. The attempt of the Russian Guard and the Liechtenstein column to stop the corps of Marshals J. Bernadotte and I. Murat was also unsuccessful. By 11 o'clock the Pratsen Heights were in possession of the French. Having deployed 42 guns on them, the French attacked the rear and flank of the encircling columns with the help of the corps of Soult and Bernadotte. Davout's corps and other French troops went on the offensive.
Unable to withstand the onslaught of the French, the Allies began to retreat along the entire front. The encircling columns, drawn into battles to the west of the Telnitz and Sokolnitz districts, were forced to retreat, breaking through the French who had come to their rear, using the defile between lakes Monitz and Zachan and the dam of Lake to retreat. Conceived, suffering heavy losses. By the end of the day, the allied troops retreated across the river. Litava and the Rausnitz stream, having lost 27 thousand people. and 185 op. French losses amounted to more than 12 thousand people. Austerlitz is one of the most brutal defeats of the Russian army in the 19th century. And, nevertheless, subsequently assessing this campaign, Napoleon said: “The Russian army of 1805 was the best of all those ever deployed against me.”
As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Austerlitz, Austria was forced to conclude on December 26. (Jan. 7) in Pressburg (Bratislava) a difficult peace treaty with France for her. Russia withdrew its troops to its territory. The third anti-French coalition collapsed.